title: The early days of late blight.
abstract: Large-scale DNA sequencing of samples of foliage collected in the 19th century from plants infected with late blight has shown that the potato famines of the 1840s were triggered by a single clonal lineage of Phytophthora infestans, called HERB-1, which persisted for at least 50 years.
authors.affiliation: is at the Division of Plant Sciences , University of Dundee , Dundee , United Kingdom and the James Hutton Institute , Dundee , United Kingdom paul.birch@hutton.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Paul R J
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Birch
authors.forename: David E L
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Cooke
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D055750:Phytophthora infestans / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000382:microbiology*; D013217:Starvation
keywords: Herbarium; Other; Phytophthora infestans; Solanum tuberosum; ancient DNA